Cerro Coso Baseball: Coyotes host second-annual scrimmage Saturday

Monday

Nov 7, 2016 at 5:00 PM

Navy team upsets Carolina with two runs in the seventh to win 5-4

Christopher Livingston Sports Editor senorlivingston

The weather — highly unusual, given that it’s November — felt like the middle of the baseball season. The Cerro Coso Coyotes, coming off an educational fall, had the opportunity to show the community what they learned.

And, given the excitement of the final inning, the spectacle at the Dawg Yard was promising.

The Coyotes split into two squads, Carolina and Navy, to compete in the second annual Blue/Gray World Series fundraiser Saturday afternoon. The eight-inning affair adjourned with the Navy team on top, 5-4, after scoring crucial runs in the bottom of the seventh.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Cerro Coso head coach Justus Scott. “We played good baseball against each other, and these things tend to have some competition that goes along with it. They sit there all week and talk about who’s gonna win and talk trash with each other, so they were getting after each other, which is a great sign.

“You see some guys who, maybe in practice or on a daily basis, are low-key and mild-mannered, then when the lights turn on, you see a difference in them. This is a good group, a fun group, and they’re good baseball players.”

Pitchers Matt Ladd and Chase Stebbins were named skippers of the Navy and Carolina teams, respectively, and were in charge of choosing their players.

“I like to go for guys who play hard and will battle the whole game and just get their job done, and that’s what we did,” Ladd said.

“I felt good about the game, it was fun,” Stebbins said. “Of course, it’s competition — we’re playing ourselves. It’s just cool seeing us play each other knowing that we’re going to be good this year.”

Needless to say, bragging rights belong to the darker shade of blue this year.

“They’re going to have bragging rights all year,” Stebbins said about the Navy team. “They can say stuff over us, but it’s not a big deal.”

The Carolina team threatened to steal the show, plating one run in the first inning. It added two more in the second, when Chase Stebbins and Alexi Ramos scored off a Navy error. Biggie Hernandez followed with an RBI single, sending home Jeremiah Johnson, to make it 4-0.

Ladd, who pitched the first two innings of the contest, used an old-school windup to begin the match, a move that he said was just for fun.

“I wasn’t on my game today,” he said, “but I was trying to mess around a little bit, have fun, not take it too seriously."

The middle innings afterward were pitchers’ duels, with both bullpens keeping the game consistent. The Navy team scored two in the bottom of the fourth to cut its deficit in half, with Alex Rosales and Paul Dykes keeping the Carolina bats silent.

In the bottom of the fifth, Navy catcher Peyton Speed scored on a Michael Rouse sacrifice fly to make it 4-3. Two innings later, Brycin Hernandez scored the tying run on a passed ball, then Troy Hughes doubled, plating Rouse for the 5-4 advantage.

“Oh man, it’s huge,” Ladd said when asked of the late-inning rallies. “They were in front the whole game, and we just kept battling.”

Jeff Rogan pitched a scoreless eighth to close out the Navy victory.

Scott said that what he saw on the field was unsurprising, given the Coyotes’ productive fall — which only means that there is an upswing in their fortunes.

“We’ve been playing well all fall,” he said. “We’ve been getting pretty good pitching, great defense and swinging the bat a little bit. So, from that end, no one stood out. It’s been more of the same.”

But there’s a lot of depth and competition for playing time to keep an eye on.

“It’s a good problem to have,” Scott said. “It’s going to make my job a lot harder filling out the lineup card.”